Texas Gay Man Attacked After Meeting Teen on App

A gay man from a northern Texas town says he was severely beaten in a possible hate crime after meeting up with a teen he chatted with via an app, the San Antonio, Texas, CBS-affiliate station KENS5 reports.

Aaron Keahey, 24, of Springtown, Texas, said he first contacted Brice Johnson, 18, with a social media mobile app called MeetMe. After an hour of chatting, Keahey said he went over the suspect’s house, also in Springtown (about 60 miles west of Dallas), on Labor Day weekend. Keahey says he thought Johnson was gay or bisexual but was attacked immediately upon entering the house.

According to the authorities, Johnson called 911 and told police he found Keahey outside his house in the trunk of a car. Johnson said he drove the victim to the hospital, but police arrested the teen and charged him with aggravated assault, causing serious bodily injury.

Keahey suffered broken bones in his face and will have to undergo plastic surgery. He also suffered nerve damage, and some of his teeth were knocked out.

"I’ve been up here altogether 10 years, and this is the first hate crime or possible hate crime that I’ve investigated," Springtown police Lt. Curtis Stone told the news station.

Keahey showed reporters from KENS5 marks on his neck and wrists and said neither he nor Johnson remembers much about the attack.

"Unfortunately, with him not being able to recall anything that happened, and the suspect claiming that he doesn’t recall, I don’t have any answers [as to] why those are there," Lt. Stone added.

Police are investigating the attack as a possible hate crime, but Keahey is positive he was assaulted because he is gay.

"Why would they have you under the belief that they’re gay or bisexual or whatever they say you are, and have them show up and do what they did?" Keahey told KENS5.

Johnson spent the summer with his friend’s family at the same house where the incident occurred. Darcel Cummings says his family provides housing for troubled teens but confesses he hasn’t seen the teen "be violent or upset towards anybody -- not enough to do something like that. And then Brice is a little bitty guy."

Court documents show five teenagers were arrested Sept. 1 and booked with hate-crime charges after police said they fired pellet guns at a man in the French Quarter and yelled sexual and racist slurs at him.